


The House Awake with Shadows and Monsters

by fruitstripegum



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: And does whatever it takes to get her revenge., F/M, Feyre goes back to the Spring Court, This just popped in my head and i had to get it out, maybe a one shot? Maybe more...., post acomaf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:33:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27482776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fruitstripegum/pseuds/fruitstripegum
Summary: After the events in Hybern, Feyre returns to the Spring Court with Tamlin to save her family and gather information on the Spring Court’s alliance with Hybern. She will do whatever it takes to win the war.
Relationships: Feyre Archeron/Rhysand, Feyre Archeron/Tamlin
Kudos: 17





	The House Awake with Shadows and Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first piece for the ACOTAR fandom. I found it and started reading it a few weeks ago and... let’s just say that the laundry has piled up and dishes have been neglected so that I could read... and re-read... and re-read this series that has captured my attention. 
> 
> I have read ACOWAR and I just couldn’t help but think that the parallels between Rhysand and Feyre, and their willingness to do whatever it takes to keep the ones they love safe could have been echoed in her time in the Spring Court... also... that Tamlin didn’t seem like the kind of guy to not stake his claim ASAP after getting Feyre back. 
> 
> T/W for mentions of not-wholly-consensual sexual encounters
> 
> This work is unbeta’d so please be gentle with any mistakes you may find!
> 
> Title is from Halsey’s Control

The escape of nighttime, of sleep, provided the only break from the hell I had willingly stepped back into. After Hyburn, after Tamlin’s betrayal and my quick decision to pretend Rhysand had held me under his thrall in the months since I’d left the Spring Court allowed the Court of Dreams to escape to safety with my sisters… every moment since I’d returned to Spring had been a study in deception.

To continue the lie, to protect the people I loved, I pretended that I was still coming to terms with what had happened to me. Tamlin had watched me like a hawk the first few days. He was not suspicious of me as I knew Lucien was; rather, he seemed to think that I would disappear if he so much as looked away from me for a moment. I’d used this to my advantage, staying with him and listening in on every conversation he’d had with his sentries, with Lucien, with the Hybern soldiers that had come ahead of the host to iron out the details of their occupation of the Spring Court land.

While he continued to keep his own quarters, Tamlin insisted he stay in mine while I slept, even though I had not made a move toward him save for a few innocuous touches of his shoulder or hand. He had not tried to do more than kiss my forehead, my cheek, but I felt his anger swell whenever he gathered me in his arms and smelled Rhys on me after more than a week back in Spring. Even in the depths of my depression after Under the Mountain, I had not deprived him of my body and I knew he grew frustrated at my lack of desire towards him. I had been so far able to allude to my time in the Night Court to cool his advances, but I knew he would not be content to wait much longer.

Rhysand found me in my dreams, our bond strong as ever. My body collided with his as I ran toward him on the jasmine-scented veranda of the House of Wind. Night swirled around us, stars glimmering and twinkling so close I felt I could reach out and touch them.

_I have missed you_ , he breathed, wrapping me up in his strong arms.

_Is this real?_ I asked. _Are you really here?_

_I am asleep,_ Rhys told me, _just as you are, but this_ feels _real._ You _feel real_.

He captured my lips in a fierce kiss. My lips parted to allow his tongue entrance and we kissed until I was panting with my need for him. His hands roamed my body as his lips wandered to the shell of my ear which he licked lightly before blowing on the sensitive skin. I was burning up with my need for him.

I made to grab for him, for the thick, hard length of him when I felt a strange sensation. I felt a stroke along the ribs of my body – my physical body. I shuddered at the wrongness that touch evoked in me; there was only one person who might dare to touch me in the Spring Court. Rhysand’s violet eyes burned with uncontained rage as he realized what was happening to me.

_I will kill him for touching you_ , Rhys growled at me.

_I will do anything to protect you_ , I replied, my mind drifting away as my body was roused from sleep. _I love you_.

Tamlin continued stroking my side through my thin, silken nightgown as my consciousness resurfaced. My body was flushed from my dream encounter with Rhys, the sheets pooled around the foot of the bed. My mind railed against the touch; I could feel my mate’s fury through our bond as I fought to school my reaction. My eyes opened to find Tamlin’s emerald-and-gold-flecked eyes trained on my parted lips. He slowly raised them to my own, which I knew were blown wide from my dream desire; I saw the hunger in them and knew that I could not deny him in my current state without rousing his suspicions.

Rhys roared in the antechamber of my mind as I made my decision. It wasn’t so different from his own sacrifice he’d made half a century ago, really. I sent a heartfelt _I love you_ down the bond as I pushed him out from my mind and sealed the black adamant walls behind him. Two heartbeats had passed since I’d opened my eyes.

My tongue peaked out to wet my lower lip. Tamlin’s eyes chased the motion hungrily.

“Tamlin,” I breathed.

He lay beside me, propped up on one elbow. His flowing white shirt was unbuttoned at the top, exposing his toned chest. The hand that was stroking my side idly wandered along my ribs to my hip and back to just below my breast in soft strokes.

“Feyre,” he whispered my name like a prayer.

His mouth surged toward mine, claiming me. I could still feel Rhysand’s phantom touch tingling on my lips as Tamlin crushed his lips to mine hard as he moved to hover his upper body over me, one hand splayed on each side of my head. I reminded myself to move, to reach out to him. He would notice if I stayed still and unresponsive for much longer.

I fisted my hand in his shirt and pulled him down closer to me. He groaned at the action, pushing a knee between my legs, positioning himself fully above me as he continued to kiss me, his tongue pushing past my lips to claim my mouth.

While my mind screamed at the thought of anyone but my mate laying their hands on me, my body responded to the touch, already aroused from my dream encounter. I smothered the part of my mind that chanted _wrong, wrong, wrong_ , giving myself wholly to the sensations I was feeling. The physical part of my relationship with Tamlin had never been difficult, anyway.

I hitched my knee up as he ground his hips down against mine, his hardening length prominent as he rutted against my stomach.

“I’ve missed this,” Tamlin groaned against my lips. “I’ve missed you.”

He traced a line up my jaw to my ear identical to the one Rhys had made in our shared dream moments earlier. I shivered as I recalled my mate’s touch; encouraged by my reaction, Tamlin took my nightgown in his fist, bunching it up by my hips and exposing my bare thighs and lacy undergarments to the night air.

His hand moved to cup me between my thighs and he growled in pleasure at the warmth and wetness he could feel through my undergarments. _Not for you_ , I wanted to growl at him, _this desire is not your doing_. But I remained silent as he touched me to claim.

I felt his smile on my neck as he nipped just below my jaw and then ran his tongue over the small hurt. A small moan escaped my lips as I arched into the twin sensations. Claws drifted out slowly from Tamlin’s knuckles as his hand moved back up towards my hip. The flimsy material of my undergarments yielded easily to Tamlin’s claws, turning to ribbons.

“Feyre,” he groaned, “Feyre, Feyre… I was so worried when he took you, it nearly drove me out of my mind.”

“I’m here now,” I whispered, a single tear leaking from my eye.

Tamlin moved to recapture my lips with his own, plunging his tongue into my mouth again and sweeping inside as if he would cover every inch of me Rhysand had touched. His hands reached up to tangle in my hair while our tongues danced. My own hands remained tightfisted to his shirt and he resumed his rutting, rubbing his now fully hard length along my abdomen.

He paused in his reclaiming of my body long enough to sit up and remove his shirt. He unbuttoned his pants, allowing his silken length to spring free. I wondered how far he would take this – if covering me in his scent would be enough to satisfy him or if he would demand more. He stared down at me from where he kneeled on the bed between my thighs and I breathed heavily, my breasts moving up and down with each gulp of air, my nipples tight buds beneath the lavender silk of my nightgown. Tamlin’s eyes roved over my body hungrily. In a flash, he dove down between my thighs, his teeth ripping away the last of my undergarments, leaving my sex exposed to him.

I tried to reach down, to grab his chin and pull him away from his intended path. He stopped me with a molten gaze. He held my stare as he lowered his mouth to my folds and licked a long, hot stripe up the center of me. My eyes rolled back at the sensation and he growled against my sex, turning my skin to gooseflesh. Over and over he licked my folds, holding my thighs open with strong, clawed hands.

His nose rubbed against the bundle of nerves at the apex of my thighs as he licked me before his mouth moved higher to suck at that too-sensitive bundle. I arched and moaned, my traitorous body melting under his ministrations. He released one hand from my thigh as he continued to work me with his mouth. A callused finger nudged at my entrance before dipping in and curling, attacking that bundle of nerves from inside my body.

I felt the rush of heat coming down from my skull, searing a line down my spine as Tamlin relentlessly devoured me with his mouth and rubbed inside of me with his thick finger. My release crested over me strongly and I moaned, unable to contain the sound. I drifted in the overwhelming sensation for a moment and when I came back to myself, Tamlin was once again kneeling between my legs. He towered over me, one hand on his cock as he sought out his imminent release. He worked himself to the edge as he stared down at me before he bowed over my body, spilling himself onto my bare torso.

He must have noticed the slight flinch I was unable to contain as his release fell in warm ropes onto my body, for his clenched eyes opened and I saw them transition from fire to ice. Still coming down from my own release, I schooled my expression into one of tired contentment. Tamlin looked down at my torso, my breasts that had somehow become exposed during the time that I was still coming down from that explosion of feeling. His hand drifted down to the mess he’d made on me, rubbing his release into my skin as if that could erase the scent of Rhys, of the bond we shared that had not been broken, despite Hybern’s attempt.

My body turned cold as I fully returned to myself. Tamlin moved to lay beside me once more but I rose, the scraps of silk and lace that had been my nightgown fluttering to the floor as I walked from the soiled bed towards the bathing chamber.

“Feyre,” Tamlin called, his voice thick and sleepy as it had always been after he’d reached his climax.

“Sleep, Tamlin,” I commanded softly, throwing out my mind to ensnare his, to ensure he did not try to follow me into the bathing room. “I’ll clean up and come right back.”

His mind obeyed as I reached the door to the bathing room and stepped in, shutting it behind me. I threw up a shield of hardened air against the door, the walls, the large window full of darkness. I turned the taps on to scorching heat as the bathtub filled with steaming water. The bubble of air ensured no one would hear as I stepped into the full bath and sat down, sobbing. I scrubbed at my skin with the lavender-scented soaps that assaulted my nose, so unlike the jasmine-and-mint bathing products I had used in the Night Court. My skin was pink and tender by the time I’d expended all the tears my body held.

I felt him then, my mate – _Rhys_ – on the precipice of my mind. I opened a crack in my mental shield, allowing him into the antechamber of my mind but no further. I would not let him see what had happened or how empty and wrung out I felt.

_Rhys_ , I breathed, closing my eyes as I sunk deeper into the now-cool water.

_Feyre_ , he whispered; even his mental voice sounded as if it had been screaming since I’d pushed him out of my mind.

_I’m so sorry_ , I said. My mind, my body, my words all felt hollow.

Rhys sent a soothing caress down the bond we shared, so soft and tender that I thought I might break into one thousand shards of brittle stone.

_I understand_ , he whispered. _More than anyone, I understand. You are so brave, my darling Feyre._

_I didn’t_ want _to, Rhysand_ , I told him through our bond. I needed him to know that.

_I know, my love_ , he said so tenderly. _I could not ever think anything less of you for the sacrifice you made, are continuing to make, to save the ones you love._

He held me, mind to mind, and offered me his steady presence.

_You told me once_ , he said after a period of time _, that killing would not win you. But Feyre, know that when this is over, I_ will _have his blood on my hands, my blade. For all he has done to hurt you, your family, he will die for it._

_Not if I kill him first_.

I rose from the cold water, drying my body and hair with the fire that burned inside me. Within our bond, I shared with my mate all that I had observed since my arrival in the Spring Court. I left out no details when describing the Hybern forces set to arrive, Tamlin’s own weakened hold on his sentries, his absent courtiers.

As I dressed in a new set of midnight black undergarments and wrapped myself in a charcoal silk robe, I steeled myself to return to that soiled bed where my enemy slept. I would do whatever it took to bring Tamlin to his knees, and then I would cut him down.


End file.
